Why We Don't Pray and How Should We Pray

As Christians, prayer should be an essential part of our daily lives, yet few of us make prayer an intentional part of out lives. Many believers have expressed to me this desire to pray more as they recognize this is an area where they need improvement. Why is it that we as believers do not place an emphasis on prayer? What can we do to increase our intentionality towards prayer? Let us look closely at why we are so lacking when it comes to prayer and what we can do to increase our prayer lives.

Our human nature is inherently sinful and our natural instinct is to focus on things that please our flesh. We tend to only ask prayers when we are in dire need or perhaps have selfish ambitions and all too often treat God as if he is some magical genie granting wishes. Although we are told to make our requests known to the Lord in prayer, prayer is so much more than just us asking for a wish list. Prayer is how we communicate with God and is one of the major ways in which we experience transformation as through prayer as we shift reliance from ourselves onto Him. All too often we are caught in the act of being busy within our own lives and we don't turn over our reliance on Him. It is very easy to get caught in this narcissistic mindset of everything revolves around us and we all need to do is work harder and put ourselves first.

Prayer changes things and typically you find that regular and intentional prayer really transforms people. Look to the example of David in the Bible as he was a sinful man like all of us and had many worldly desires. How can it be that a man like this who did grievous sins was called a man after God's heart. Our natural tendency after our sin is to run away from God as sin created distance from a Holy God. David on the other hand ran to God instead of running from Him, which is what we all too often do. Think back to a time when you either committed an overt sin or at least your heart was not exactly in the right place, do you recall how much emphasis you put on prayer during this time. I know in my own life, the last thing I want to do is pray after I have sinned as there tends to be this cloud of shame.

How can we improve our prayer lives? Prayer like anything ,takes dedication and practice, but the first step is getting our hearts in the right place. We must submit to Christ and realize that our identity is in Him and that prayer is a major way on how He will move through our lives. It is essential to confess our sins and also to search our hearts for any unknown sins and to place Christ first. The truth is God doesn't need us, but because He is such a loving God He uses us and one of these ways is through prayer. Prayer is one way that all Christ followers can contribute to the Kingdom regardless of our age, health, financial status or any other factor as we can all pray and encourage one another in prayer.

Most of us tend to think of prayer from an individual standpoint as prayer is a quiet time alone with God where we come search our souls, raise our prayer requests and thank Him for what he has done. This is of course true, but prayer is also meant to be done publicly as a body of Christ. We should be bold in praying with others as this sets an example and can be very encouraging as we never know what one may be struggling with and our dedication to prayer can also help hold others accountable. Prayer also serves as a testimony to the world around as they see our commitment to prayer and how much reliance we place on our faith.

We must not forget the importance of corporate prayer as there is power in coming together as a body in prayer. Our pastors have recently placed a stronger emphasis on corporate prayer as they found it was the least attended meeting in the church. Does your church have a specific service, whether it be weekly or even monthly set aside for prayer? Do you make it a priority to attend? As the body of Christ, we all have different strengths and can offer different perspectives, corporate prayer can help not only to teach us how to pray, but to shift our focus to praying for others and increase our accountability in prayer.

Prayer is essential in our Christian walk as it helps transform our hearts. Our main purpose at The Ceaseless Prayer Project is to encourage us all to become more intentional in our prayer lives. It is easy for us to sit here and complain about the direction of the world, yet how many of us come to the Lord regularly in prayer and lift up our requests. We need to do a better job of praying individually and reaching out to others in prayer as it is no wonder our hearts have shifted away from God as we do not place an emphasis on prayer and seeking things of Christ first.

Dear Lord, forgive us for getting caught up in the distractions of this world and help us to be more intentional in our prayer lives, Equip us with wisdom and discernment and teach us to pray according to your will. Help us to hunger for things of you and may we all grow closer to you in all we do.